Paleo Crock Pot Balsamic and Tomato Beef Stew

Crock Pot Paleo Beef Stew in a Tomato and Balsamic Reduction sauce in all it’s glory. Isn’t it amazing? Served it with my Paleo no grain substitution, carrot and parsnip puree.

For all my friends out there who were craving BEEF, this one is for you. I know I need to cook more beef but when you have all these delicious recipes using other wonderful sources of protein like pork, bison, chicken and even deer meat (remember I live in TX where the majority of your friends hunt and offer you deer meat by the bags full) to eat, I am sorry but the cow gets the cold shoulder in my book. So Moo on that!

Having that all said, this recipe was awesome. Boy do I love how tomato and balsamic vinegar taste together; the combination is amazing. Hello why do you think Caprese salads are so popular? I love the sweet taste of balsamic vinegar. A little goes a long way and the best part of it is the fact that balsamic vinegar has no fat and few calories. Score!

So as much as I love this new recipe and as much as I plan to include it in my repertoire there is one, and only one, disclaimer I must admit. As most of you know, I readily complain on this blog about how much I DESPISE crock pot recipes that involve searing the meat first in another pan before you place it in the slow cooker to cook all day. The only reason why I loathe this extra step is due to 100% laziness on my behalf. If a recipe calls for browning the meat first, then I have to clean an extra dish. That is blasphemy in my book! Forget about how much juicier the meat is when you sear it first, I know that but it doesn’t matter when you have an extra pan to scrub. Priorities people, my time is precious. Kidding! Tough crowd. So either way you look at it, as you can imagine I keep the browning recipes to a minimum and I wouldn’t even think about posting one unless I absolutely and positively thought it was worth it. And it is true about what “they” say about browning. The meat is juicer! I have been saying for the longest time that I need to start saving my $ so I can finally buy a crock pot that sears IN the SAME crock pot, isn’t that genius?? What do you think about this beauty? Is it too late to ask for one for Valentine’s Day? How about my birthday in May? How about OurFullPlate’s 1 year anniversary in July? I can go on and on. Anyway until then, I am stuck cleaning another pan, oh well. So the moral of the story is, don’t let the browning step scare you. Have you tried my other fave searing crock pot dish? If so, then you would agree BOTH will be worth it.

I doubled on the carrots here and served this stew with my new grain substitution, Paleo carrot and parsnip puree, in addition to the carrots I threw in to the crock pot.